[hotpotamus]

I have gotten some pushback here (which is understandable) for saying that I think a lot of long covid is actually anxiety. And I say that because I am intimately familiar with it. I have had crippling physical symptoms that are alleviated almost instantly by benzodiazepines and so when I hear examples of other psychological medications (if we want to classify psilocybin as such; I've taken it myself for similar reasons) giving such immediate relief, it deepens my suspicion that long covid is more of a psychological issue than a purely physical one (though I have a hard time expressing that exactly because the longer I live, the more I find it hard to separate the psychological from the physical; mind and body may not be one exactly but they are inseparable. I hope that that is t least somewhat understandable). I also do not mean this to say that I think that there are no physical long covid effects; clearly some people carry those scars as well.

[rogerkirkness]

This is sort of half true. It appears to act biologically on serotonin, which affects anxiety, but the mechanism is the nervous system damage (as well as reducing the efficiency of oxygen diffusion in tissue, found recently in Nature study). Given the two, it appears long Covid is 1. Serotonin syndrome and 2. Affects oxygen diffusion, which together cause a variety of vague but real symptoms. Benzos addressing anxiety would give temporary relief from the serotonin dysregulation/depletion.